Client-independent network supervision application

ABSTRACT

A network monitoring and control application suitable for use by teachers and other users is implemented using wireless access points and does not require specific software to be installed on client network devices. The application uses student and class information to organize network client information. Upon receiving a monitoring request, one or more classes assigned to the teacher are identified by accessing class data. Class data is accessed to identify students assigned to the class and the client network devices used by these students. One wireless access point providing wireless network connections to at least a portion of the students&#39; devices is selected to collect network activity information from the students&#39; devices and presents this information to the teacher. The teacher may also use the selected wireless access point to disable students&#39; network access or to redirect students&#39; devices to a network resource.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/177,159, filed Feb. 10, 2014, entitled“CLIENT-INDEPENDENT NETWORK SUPERVISION APPLICATION,” which is acontinuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/192,325,filed Jul. 27, 2011, entitled “CLIENT-INDEPENDENT NETWORK SUPERVISIONAPPLICATION,” now U.S. Pat. No. 8,671,187, which claims priority to U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 61/368,244, filed Jul. 27, 2010,entitled “CLIENT-INDEPENDENT NETWORK SUPERVISION APPLICATION,” all ofwhich are incorporated by reference herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to the field of network monitoring and supervisionapplication. Educational institutions often provide computers andnetwork access to their students and teachers to facilitate instruction.For example, students and teachers may each be provided with a computersystem or other electronic communications device, such as a tabletcomputer or personal digital assistant. Each student and/or teacher mayuse their assigned device for some or all of their classes andassignments. In another example, a specific classroom may includecomputer systems or other devices for use by all of the studentsassigned to that classroom for one or more classes. In yet anotherexample, a set of computer systems or other devices may be assigned to acart or cabinet that can be moved to different classrooms according tothe needs of students and teachers.

One downside with incorporating computers and other devices ineducational environments is that teachers or other instructors oftenneed to monitor the network usage of their students. For example, when aclass begins, the teacher may instruct the students to start theircomputers and access a specific web site. After providing theseinstructions, the teacher must then walk around the classroom to verifythat all of the students' computers have successfully connected to thenetwork and are viewing the specified web site. As the class continues,the teacher may need to frequently patrol the classroom to ensure thatall of the students are using their computers in an appropriate manner.The time and effort required to monitor and supervise students' networkusage reduces the time and quality of classroom instruction.

Prior systems for monitoring and supervising students' network usagerely on monitoring applications installed on each student's computer.Because these monitoring applications are installed and executed onstudents' computers, they must be compatible with the hardware,operating system, and software configuration of these computers or otherdevices. This increases the administrative overhead required to deployand maintain student computers and limits the types of devices that canbe provided to students. Additionally, installing monitoringapplications on students' computers can create privacy issues. In somecases, teachers and school administrators may be liable for violatingstudent privacy rights if the monitoring applications are activatedoutside of school, such as at a student's home.

Additionally, traditional network monitoring applications are tailoredtowards the needs of system administrators. The user interface and typeof information of these prior network monitoring applications isintended for computer-literate and technically sophisticated users. Theinterface and type of information provided by these applications may beunsuitable for many teachers and school administrators. Furthermore,traditional network monitoring applications identify users and clientnetwork devices by hardware attributes, such as MAC addresses, or userattributes, such as user login identifications. However, these priornetwork monitoring applications do not organize network information inmanner relevant to teachers and school administrators, such as byclasses, class schedules, or classrooms.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An embodiment of the invention includes a simplified network monitoringand control application suitable for use by teachers and othersupervisors. An embodiment of the invention is implemented usingwireless access points and other network devices and thus does notrequire specific software to be installed on client network devices.Thus, this embodiment of the invention can operate with any type ofnetwork client capable of communicating via a wireless networkinterface. An embodiment of the invention uses student and classinformation to organize network client information in a manner relevantto teachers and other users. An embodiment of the invention monitors andcontrols client network devices using a decentralized system, so thatindividual network devices are not overburdened.

Upon receiving a monitoring request from a teacher or other user, anembodiment of the invention identifies one or more classes assigned tothe teacher by accessing class data. A teacher or other user may selectone of the identified classes or alternatively, an embodimentautomatically selects one of the classes based on a class scheduleand/or class location. Once a class has been selected by the teacher, anembodiment of the invention accesses class data to identify studentsassigned to the class. This embodiment of the invention furtheridentifies client network devices used by these students. An embodimentof the invention then selects one wireless access point providingwireless network connections to at least a portion of the students'client network devices. The selected wireless access point collectsnetwork activity information from the students' client network devicesand presents this information to the teacher or other user.

In an embodiment, the teacher may also use the selected wireless accesspoint to selectively enable or disable local and/or wide-area networkaccess to one or more student client network devices. In a furtherembodiment, the teacher may also use the selected wireless access pointto redirect students' client network devices to a desired networkresource. In this embodiment, the teacher or other user provides theselected wireless access point with a network address of the networkresource. The selected wireless access point then intercepts networkresource requests from at least a portion of the students' clientnetwork devices. In response to these network resource requests, theselected wireless access point sends redirection messages including theprovided network address to the students' client network devices. Thestudents' client network devices then retrieve the desired networkresource automatically.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be described with reference to the drawings, inwhich:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system suitable for use with embodimentsof the invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a method of aggregating network client informationaccording to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates an example user interface suitable for presentinguser information according to an embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 4 illustrates a computer system suitable for implementing all or aportion of embodiments of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

An embodiment of the invention includes a simplified network monitoringand control application suitable for use by teachers and othersupervisors. An embodiment of the invention is implemented usingwireless access points and other network devices and thus does notrequire specific software to be installed on client network devices.Thus, this embodiment of the invention can operate with any type ofnetwork client capable of communicating via a wireless networkinterface. An embodiment of the invention uses student and classinformation to organize network client information in a manner relevantto teachers and other users. An embodiment of the invention monitors andcontrols client network devices using a decentralized system, so thatindividual network devices are not overburdened.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system 100 suitable for use withembodiments of the invention. System 100 includes a plurality of studentclient network devices 105. Student client network devices 105 mayinclude portable or desktop personal computers, tablet computers, mobileinternet access or web browsing devices, personal digital assistantdevices, and any other type of electronic communications device capableof retrieving data via an electronic communications network. Studentclient network devices 105 may be assigned to specific students, tospecific classrooms, to carts or cabinets that can be moved to differentclassrooms according to the needs of students and teachers, ordistributed on an ad-hoc basis to students as needed.

Similarly, system 100 includes a plurality of teacher client networkdevices 110. Teacher network devices 110 may include portable or desktoppersonal computers, tablet computers, mobile internet access or webbrowsing devices, personal digital assistant devices, and any other typeof electronic communications device capable of retrieving data via anelectronic communications network. Teacher client network devices 105may be assigned to specific teachers, school administrators, and/orother staff members; to specific classrooms; to carts or cabinets thatcan be moved to different classrooms according to the needs of studentsand teachers; or distributed on an ad-hoc basis to teachers and otherpersonnel as needed.

Student and teacher client network devices 105 and 110 are connectedwith one or more local area networks via wireless network connectionsprovided by wireless access points 115, such as wireless access points115 a, 115 b, and 115 c. Wireless access points 115 may use any wirelessnetworking technology and protocol known in the art, including one ormore of the IEEE 802.11 family of wireless networking standards.

Wireless access points 115 are connected with one or more local-areanetworks via one or more network switches 120 or other network devices,such as network switches 120 a and 120 b. Network switches and otherlocal-area network devices 120 are connected with a router and/orfirewall network device 125. Router and firewall network device 125 mayprovide network address translation, network address assignment, andnetwork security for the local-area networks. Additionally router andfirewall network device 125 optionally connects the local-area networkswith a wide-area network 135, such as the internet.

System 100 may also include a wireless access point manager 130 thatcontrols the configuration of the wireless access points 115. Wirelessaccess point manager 130 may facilitate the deployment of networkpolicies, software and firmware upgrades, and configurations to wirelessaccess points 115. Wireless access point manager 130 may also monitornetwork usage by client network devices 105 and 110 via the wirelessaccess points 115. In an embodiment, the wireless access point manager130 is adapted for use in a controller-less system, in which control andforwarding of network traffic is distributed among the wireless accesspoints 115. In an alternate embodiment of system 100, the wirelessaccess point manager 130 operates in conjunction with a wireless accesspoint controller that intercepts, analyzes, and forwards substantiallyall of the network traffic associated with the wireless access points115.

FIG. 2 illustrates a method 200 of aggregating network clientinformation according to an embodiment of the invention. Step 205receives an monitoring request from a user, such as a teacher or schooladministrator. In an embodiment, the monitoring request may be a webpage monitoring request, such as a HTTP request, addressed to apreviously determined network address or domain. In a furtherembodiment, the monitoring request is addressed or redirected to awireless access point manager.

In response to receiving the monitoring request in step 205, step 210authenticates the user request, for example by requesting that the userprovide a login identification and password. In an embodiment of method200, a user interface is provided to the user in the form of one or moreweb pages provided by the wireless access point manager, wireless accesspoints, or other network devices. In an embodiment, step 210 may accessan authentication system to authenticate users, such as RADIUS, ActiveDirectory, Captive Web Portal, or a private PSK scheme, such as thatdescribed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/485,041, filed Jun. 16,2009, and entitled “EXCLUSIVE PRESHARED KEY AUTHENTICATION,” which isincorporated by reference herein. The private PSK scheme assigns aunique pre-shared key (PSK) to each wireless network user. Thus, theuser is authenticated automatically upon connecting with the wirelessnetwork with their assigned key.

Following successful authentication of the user by step 210, step 215provides the user with a list of classes to monitor and/or control. Anembodiment of step 215 accesses a database or other data storagestructure to identify one or more classes associated with the user. Forexample, if the user is a teacher, then step 215 may identify one ormore classes that have been assigned to the teacher. If the user is asubstitute teacher or other school administrator, the user may provide asupplemental identification of a primary teacher. Step 215 uses thissupplemental identification to identify one or more classes assigned tothe primary teacher and potentially of interest to the user. In afurther embodiment, step 215 may compare the current day and/or timewith class schedules to automatically identify one or more classesassociated with the user that are in progress, starting soon, orrecently ended.

In another embodiment, step 215 may identify one or more classesassociated with the user based on the location of the user's computer orother client network device. The location of the user's network clientmay be identified using wireless network location detection techniques,such as comparing wireless network signal strengths from client networkdevices received by multiple wireless access points.

Once step 215 has identified one or more classes associated with theuser, step 215 presents this class list to the user and receives a classselection from the user in response.

In an embodiment, if step 215 only identifies a single class associatedwith a user, for example by cross-referencing the current day and timeand/or user location with a class schedule, then the class may beautomatically selected by step 215.

Following step 215, step 220 identifies additional client networkdevices associated with the class selected by the user. In anembodiment, step 220 accesses a database or other data storage structureto identify students or other personnel assigned to the selected class.Step 220 then accesses a database or other data storage structure toidentify client network devices assigned to these students. If studentsare assigned to a specific client network devices, client network deviceidentifiers, such as MAC addresses, may be associated with studentrecords in the database or other data storage structure. In a furtherembodiment, step 220 may access an authentication or user directorysystem, such as RADIUS, Active Directory, or Captive Web Portal, tomatch students with specific network devices. In another embodiment, ifa private PSK scheme is used, step 220 may search the network for clientnetwork devices connected using PSK's assigned to the students of theselected class.

In another embodiment, step 215 may be optionally omitted and step 220of method 200 identifies client network devices of interest to the userbased on criteria other than the class associations. For example, anembodiment of step 220 identifies the location of the user, as describedabove, and then identifies one or more student client network devices atthe same location, such as in the same classroom. In another example,multiple client network devices may be assigned to a group, representinga cabinet or cart of computer shared by students and teachers. In thisexample, step 220 identifies the group associated with the networkclient used by the user and selects all of the other active clientnetwork devices associated with this group for monitoring.

In yet another embodiment, step 220 may identify the location, such as aspecific classroom, of the user's computer or other client networkdevice, and then search for other client network devices at the samelocation. Any other client network devices in the same location, e.g.the same classroom as the user, are automatically selected formonitoring by the user.

Step 225 selects one of the wireless access points of the network toservice the user's monitoring request. By distributing different usermonitoring requests to different wireless access points for servicing,this embodiment of the invention balances the processing load requiredby the monitoring system across the excess computing capacity ofexisting network devices. This eliminates the need for additional,dedicated network devices to implement embodiments of the invention.

In an embodiment, step 225 identifies one or more wireless access pointson the network that are providing wireless network connections to atleast one of the identified student client network devices and/or theuser's client network device. If there is only one wireless access pointproviding wireless network connections to these client network devices,an embodiment of step 225 selects this wireless access point to servicethe user's monitoring request. If there are two or more wireless accesspoints providing wireless network connections to these client networkdevices, an embodiment of step 225 selects the wireless access pointproviding the majority of wireless network connections to service theuser's monitoring request. In another embodiment, if no client networkdevices associated with a class are connected with any wireless accesspoint, step 225 may select the wireless access point that has the lowestworkload at the time of the monitoring request. In another embodiment,step 225 uses load-balancing techniques to select the appropriatewireless access point for servicing the user's monitoring request.

In another embodiment, an administrative user may preconfigure one ormore of the wireless access points to service users' monitoringrequests. For example, an administrative user may preconfigure awireless access point located in or a near a specific classroom or othertype of location to service all monitoring requests from users in thatclassroom. In this embodiment, step 225 identifies the classroom orother type of location associated with the user's monitoring request andselects the wireless access point preconfigured for this location.

In still another embodiment, an administrative or management applicationor an optional wireless network controller monitors the activity ofclient network devices to identify the wireless access points that eachclass or other group of client network devices access most frequently.After gathering sufficient records of a class' network usage, step 225selects the wireless access point for a monitoring request that waspreviously used frequently by this class.

Step 230 redirects the user to the selected wireless access point. In anembodiment, the user interface for monitoring and supervising studentclient network devices is provided as web pages. Prior to step 230, anembodiment of method 200 may provide web pages for user interactionusing the wireless access point manager or other network devices. Step230 redirects the user's web browser on his or her client network deviceto the selected wireless access point. The selected wireless accesspoint then provides additional web pages for further user interaction,including the ongoing monitoring and supervision of student clientnetwork devices.

As discussed above, multiple wireless access points may provide networkconnections to a portion of the identified student client networkdevices. If this is the case, then optional step 235 configures anyunselected wireless access points providing a network connection to atleast one of the identified student client network devices to redirectnetwork activity information for their identified student client networkdevices to the selected wireless access point. If the selected wirelessaccess point is providing wireless network connections to all of theidentified student client network devices of interest to the user, thenstep 235 may be omitted.

Step 240 monitors the network activity of the identified student clientnetwork devices and presents this information to the user via a userinterface, implemented for example as a web page. The user interface maybe automatically updated in real time, near real time, or periodicallywith updated network activity information, or on request from the user.As described in detail below, network activity information can includeinformation for each student's client network device such as thewireless network connection status; the software applications used toaccess the network; the network resources accessed by the student, suchas web pages or network locations; and the upstream and/or downstreamnetwork bandwidth used by the student's client network device. In anembodiment, all of the network activity information can be collected bywireless access points and/or other network devices, eliminating theneed to install monitoring software on student's client network devices.

As described in detail below, step 240 may also receive control inputsfrom the user to change the wireless network connections of one or morestudent client network devices. Changes to wireless network connectionscan include enabling or disabling local and/or wide-area network accessfor one or more of the students and redirecting one or more of thestudents' client network devices to a network resource, such as a webpage, specified by the user.

As described above, embodiments of method 200 may access a database orother data structure to determine class schedules, class locations,lists of students and teachers assigned to classes, and otherinformation. In one embodiment, one or more data files, such asspreadsheets or CSV data files, including this information are uploadedby an administrator to the system. In another embodiment, the systemaccesses an external school administrative system or student informationsystem via an API or other interface to retrieve this information inadvance or as needed. In still another embodiment, the system provides aself-registration process that enables students and teachers to manuallyassociate themselves with a class. For example, a teacher or other usermay manually create an entry for a class. In response, the systemprovides the teacher with a registration code that is unique for thisclass. The teacher then provides this registration code to his or herstudents. Upon connecting with the wireless network, student areprompted to enter their registration code to associate their useridentifications and/or their client network devices with this class. Theself-registration process may only need to be performed once for eachstudent (for example on the students' first day of class). On subsequentclass sessions, this embodiment of the invention uses informationobtained from students' previous self-registrations, such as useridentifications and/or client network device identifications, toassociate students with their classes.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example user interface 300 suitable for presentinguser information according to an embodiment of the invention. Asdescribed above, user interface 300 may be implemented as one or moreweb pages provided by a wireless access point or other network device.User interface 300 includes a student list 303. The student list 303includes student names 310 and student network activity information,such as their wireless network connection status 305 and a networkresource list 315 of network resources accessed by each student, such asweb pages. In a further embodiment, the wireless network connectionstatus 305 may include a simplified display of wireless networkconnection information, such as a red icon if there is a problem with astudent's wireless network connection or a green icon if a student'swireless network connection is operating correctly. In yet a furtherembodiment, the wireless network connection status 305 may be based inpart on criteria, such as bandwidth usage, or network events, such asattempting to access a blocked web page. If a student's network activityexceeds a criteria or includes a prohibited type of network event, thestudent's wireless network connection status 305 may be updated toindicate this to the teacher or other user, for example by changing theicon associated with the student's wireless network connection status305. In these embodiments, the wireless network connection status 305may be based on an aggregate evaluation of two or more different typesof network activity information.

Example user interface 300 also includes user interface controls forcontrolling the network connections of the students. For example, userinterface 300 includes network access controls 320 for enabling ordisabling network access to local and/or wide-area networks for one ormore students. The functionality of these controls is implemented by thewireless access points and/or other network devices by selectivelypassing or blocking network traffic based on network addresses for oneor more students.

Additionally, example user interface 300 includes a redirection control325. The redirection control 325 enables teachers or other users todirect their students to a specific web page or other network resource.This feature can save time and reduce errors arising from studentshaving to manually enter network addresses. A teacher or other userenters an address of a network resource, such as a URL of a web page,into the redirection control. The teacher can then instruct his or herstudents to refresh the web page in their web browsers. The wirelessaccess points and/or other network devices intercept these refreshrequests and reply with an HTTP redirect instruction to the networkaddress provided by the teacher.

Although the above-described embodiments refer to applications withinschools and other educational environments, embodiments of the inventionmay be readily deployed in any other type of environment where one ormore users require a simplified interface for monitoring and optionallycontrolling network access for large numbers of other users. Examples ofother types of environments include hospitals, conference centers, andbusiness offices.

FIG. 4 illustrates a computer system 2000 suitable for implementing allor a portion of embodiments of the invention. FIG. 4 is a block diagramof a computer system 2000, such as a personal computer or other digitaldevice, suitable for practicing an embodiment of the invention.Embodiments of computer system 2000 include dedicated networkingdevices, such as wireless access points, network switches, hubs,routers, hardware firewalls, network traffic optimizers andaccelerators, network attached storage devices, and combinationsthereof.

Computer system 2000 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 2005 forrunning software applications and optionally an operating system. CPU2005 may be comprised of one or more processing cores. Memory 2010stores applications and data for use by the CPU 2005. Examples of memory2010 include dynamic and static random access memory. Storage 2015provides non-volatile storage for applications and data and may includefixed or removable hard disk drives, flash memory devices, ROM memory,and CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, Blu-ray, HD-DVD, or other magnetic, optical, orsolid state storage devices. Memory 2010 may store a firmware imagecomprising applications and data adapted to be executed by computersystem 2000.

Optional user input devices 2020 communicate user inputs from one ormore users to the computer system 2000, examples of which may includekeyboards, mice, joysticks, digitizer tablets, touch pads, touchscreens, still or video cameras, and/or microphones. In an embodiment,user input devices may be omitted and computer system 2000 may present auser interface to a user over a network, for example using a web page ornetwork management protocol and network management softwareapplications.

Computer system 2000 includes one or more network interfaces 2025 thatallow computer system 2000 to communicate with other computer systemsvia an electronic communications network, and may include wired orwireless communication over local area networks and wide area networkssuch as the Internet. Computer system 2000 may support a variety ofnetworking protocols at one or more levels of abstraction. For example,computer system may support networking protocols at one or more layersof the seven layer OSI network model. An embodiment of network interface2025 includes one or more wireless network interfaces adapted tocommunicate with wireless clients and with other wireless networkingdevices using radio waves, for example using the 802.11 family ofprotocols, such as 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n.

An embodiment of the computer system 2000 may also include a wirednetworking interface, such as one or more Ethernet connections tocommunicate with other networking devices via local or wide-areanetworks. In a further embodiment, computer system 2000 may be capableof receiving some or all of its required electrical power via thenetwork interface 2025, for example using a wired networking interfacepower over Ethernet system.

The components of computer system 2000, including CPU 2005, memory 2010,data storage 2015, user input devices 2020, and network interface 2025are connected via one or more data buses 2060. Additionally, some or allof the components of computer system 2000, including CPU 2005, memory2010, data storage 2015, user input devices 2020, and network interface2025 may be integrated together into one or more integrated circuits orintegrated circuit packages. Furthermore, some or all of the componentsof computer system 2000 may be implemented as application specificintegrated circuits (ASICS) and/or programmable logic.

A power supply 2030 provides electrical power to the computer system2000. Power supply 2030 may be adapted to draw electrical power from aconnection with an electrical power distribution grid. In an embodiment,power supply 2030 is connected with network interface 2025 to drawelectrical power for computer system 2000 from one or more wired networkconnections using a network power standard, such as IEEE 802.3af.

Although embodiments of the invention are discussed with reference tothe IEEE 802.11 standard, embodiments of the invention are equallyapplicable to other standard and proprietary wireless network protocols.Additionally, embodiments of the invention are not limited to 802.11wireless network connections and may be utilized for any type ofcommunication network where a network connection between a clientwireless network device and a wireless network device is required.

Further embodiments can be envisioned to one of ordinary skill in theart from the specification and figures. In other embodiments,combinations or sub-combinations of the above disclosed invention can beadvantageously made. The block diagrams of the architecture and flowcharts are grouped for ease of understanding. However it should beunderstood that combinations of blocks, additions of new blocks,re-arrangement of blocks, and the like are contemplated in alternativeembodiments of the present invention. The specification and drawingsare, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative rather than arestrictive sense. It will, however, be evident that variousmodifications and changes may be made thereunto without departing fromthe broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in theclaims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, from anadministrator of an event, a monitoring request for the event indicatingto monitor a group of attendees to the event in accessing a wirelessnetwork; determining identifications of the attendees to the event andcorresponding client devices utilized by the attendees in accessing thewireless network; selecting a wireless access point providing access tothe wireless network to the attendees through the client devices basedon the identifications of the client devices; collecting, through thewireless access point, network activity information indicating networkactivities performed by the attendees in accessing the wireless network;providing the network activity information to the administrator for usein monitoring the network activities performed by the attendees inaccessing the wireless network.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein thenetwork activity information is provided to a client device used by theadministrator through the wireless access point.
 3. The method of claim1, further comprising further providing functionalities to theadministrator for selectively enabling and disabling the client devicesaccess to the wireless network on a per client device basis through thewireless access point.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprisingproviding functionalities to the administrator for instructing thewireless access point to redirect the client devices to a desirednetwork resource.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising providingfunctionalities to the administrator for instructing the wireless accesspoint to redirect network resource requests from the client device to adesired network resource.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the clientdevices are assigned to the attendees based on the event attended by theattendees.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring request is aHTTP request addressed to a previously determined network address. 8.The method of claim 1, further comprising authenticating the monitoringrequest received from the administrator.
 9. The method of claim 1,further comprising authenticating the monitoring request using apre-shared key assigned to the administrator.
 10. The method of claim 1,further comprising providing the administrator with a list of events tomonitor in response to receipt of the monitoring request, the list ofevents including the event.
 11. A system comprising: an administratorclient device configured to send a monitoring request for the eventindicating to monitor a group of attendees to the event in accessing awireless network; a wireless access point manager configured to:determine identifications of the attendees to the event andcorresponding client devices utilized by the attendees in accessing thewireless network; select a wireless access point providing access to thewireless network to the attendees through the client devices based onthe identifications of the client devices; collect, through the wirelessaccess point, network activity information indicating network activitiesperformed by the attendees in accessing the wireless network; providethe network activity information to the administrator for use inmonitoring the network activities performed by the attendees inaccessing the wireless network.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein thenetwork activity information is provided to the administrator clientdevice through the wireless access point.
 13. The system of claim 11,wherein the wireless access point manager is further configured toprovide functionalities to the administrator for selectively enablingand disabling the client devices access to the wireless network on a perclient device basis through the wireless access point.
 14. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the wireless access point manager is furtherconfigured to provide functionalities to the administrator forinstructing the wireless access point to redirect the client devices toa desired network resource.
 15. The system of claim 11, wherein thewireless access point manager is further configured to providefunctionalities to the administrator for instructing the wireless accesspoint to redirect network resource requests from the client device to adesired network resource.
 16. The system of claim 11, wherein the clientdevices are assigned to the attendees based on the event attended by theattendees.
 17. The system of claim 11, wherein the monitoring request isa HTTP request addressed to a previously determined network address. 18.The system of claim 11, wherein the wireless access point manager isfurther configured to authenticate the monitoring request received fromthe administrator.
 19. The system of claim 11, wherein the wirelessaccess point manager is further configured to authenticate themonitoring request using a pre-shared key assigned to the administrator.20. A system comprising: means for receiving, from an administrator ofan event, a monitoring request for the event indicating to monitor agroup of attendees to the event in accessing a wireless network; meansfor determining identifications of the attendees to the event andcorresponding client devices utilized by the attendees in accessing thewireless network; means for selecting a wireless access point providingaccess to the wireless network to the attendees through the clientdevices based on the identifications of the client devices; means forcollecting, through the wireless access point, network activityinformation indicating network activities performed by the attendees inaccessing the wireless network; means for providing the network activityinformation to the administrator for use in monitoring the networkactivities performed by the attendees in accessing the wireless network.